SA Canoeists are competing in the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships and have already scored some podium places!
Metkovic, Croatia (20 September 2024) — A South African canoeing team packed with potential medallists from a squad of future stars and older heroes are in action in Metkovic in Croatia this week for the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships! Here, SA Canoeists have already made home proud.
The youth and experience cliché is apt for the squad that includes vastly experienced former World Champions such as Hank McGregor and Andy Birkett – who have dominated the international marathon scene for the past few years – mixed up with a slew of youngsters who have already started proving themselves on the world stage.
The four-day championships started with a day of mostly K1 short course racing for the senior paddlers on Thursday. This hurly-burly format rewards competitors for their speed, tactics, aggression and a healthy dose of luck in three-lap races that contain two portages in less than four kilometres of high-intensity action.
Leading the short-course charge for South Africa was 2012 London Olympic Games medallist Bridgitte Hartley and Pippa McGregor for the women, while recent Paris Olympic B finalists Hamish Lovemore and Clint Cook were in action for the men. Here, Hamish scored silver!
Holly Smith and Georgia Singe took hold of the junior women’s K1 long course final, where Holly and Georgia earned silver.
“Team South Africa took their tally to three silver medals on Day 2 of the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Croatia with Georgia Singe grabbing her second medal on Friday.
Singe added a second silver to her tally when, together with Holly Smith, she matched her runner up spot from Thursday’s K1 event by finishing second in the junior K2 race.”
All the team members earned personal bests on day one in what was described by Canoeing South Africa as a day filled with some “exceptional racing”.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s action is all long-course racing, when McGregor, Birkett and Lovemore are the main medal hopes for the men, while Smith and Singe join Christie Mackenzie and Saskia Hockly as genuine potential medallists in the women’s events.
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The next days of elite racing come on the back of the Marathon Masters World Championships at the same venue in Metkovic, and the “oldies” have certainly given the elite paddlers plenty of motivation with their medal haul on Monday and Tuesday.
The masters event got off to a perfect start on Monday with one of South Africa’s international stars from the 1980s, Graham Monteith, convincingly winning the opening race of the regatta. Graham ended 30 seconds clear of Briton Stephen Missen, with South African Theo Smit claiming the bronze in the K1 Men’s 65-69 event.
The only other gold medal on the opening day of singles events went to Hartley (K1 Women’s 40-44), but silver medals were awarded to Michael-John Robb (K1 Men’s 35-39), Talevi (K1 Men’s 45-49) and Pippa McGregor (K1 Women’s 35-39); while Gustav Radloff (K1 Men’s 55-59) claimed a bronze.
On the second day of racing, in the doubles events, Linton Hope and Bruce Wenke led home a near South African clean-sweep of the podium. Linton and Bruce claimed the gold in the K2 Men’s 65-69 race, with compatriot Chris Visser teaming up with Spaniard Jaime Llamedo for second place, before the South African combination of Pierre van der Merwe and Theo Smit claimed the bronze.
Other doubles gold medal winners were Nigel Briggs and Peter O’Connor (K2 Men’s 70-74); Robb and Robert Crichton (K2 Men’s 35-39); Talevi, with Japan’s Lajos Gyokos (K2 Men’s 40-44); Michael Stewart and Pieter Engelbrecht (K2 Men’s 50-54), and Bradley Fisher and Radloff (K2 Men’s 55-59). The only silver medal winners were Alex Roberts and Hein Van Rooyen (K2 Men’s 40-44); while the bronze medallists were Mark Garden and Matthew Ballenden (bronze, K2 Men’s 45-49) and Jason Ekstrand and Richard Lowe (K2 Men’s 50-54).
The South Africa Team
Women:
- Bridgitte Hartley (Women’s Short Course)
- Christie Mackenzie (Women’s K1 & K2)
- Georgia Singe (Junior Women’s K1 & K2)
- Hana Newlands (Junior Women’s K2)
- Holly Smith (Junior Women’s K1 & K2)
- Jade Wilson (Women’s K2 & U23 K1)
- Nicole Birkett (Women’s K1 & K2)
- Pippa Mcgregor (Women’s Short Course)
- Saskia Hockly (Women’s K2 & U23 K1)
- Tayla Norton (Junior Women’s K2)
Men:
- Andrew Birkett (Men’s K1 & K2)
- Clinton Cook (Men’s Short Course)
- Hamish Lovemore (Men’s K2 & Short Course)
- Hank Mcgregor (Men’s K1 & K2)
- Jared Shrimpton (Junior Men’s K2)
- Keegan Vogt (Junior Men’s K1)
- Matthew Fenn (Men’s U23 K1)
- Ryley Smith (Junior Men’s K1 & K2)
- Theo Dreyer (Junior Men’s K2)
- Tyde Malherbe (Junior Men’s K2)
- Uli Hart (Men’s K2 & U23 K1)
Sources: Gameplan Media; Canoeing South Africa
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